Chainsaw Man

[Kraco]

Well I exaggerated but I didn't mean it in a he could have run away, if my posts haven't been clear I never blamed Denji for his situation nor do I blame him not trying to get out of it and I do find it believable that he doesn't run away. One of the things I liked in the first episode is seeing glimpses of his frustration and resignation that this is his life, it made him very humane to me.

But in my mind if a criminal organization took a kid they wouldn't just tell him to get the money rather they'd put him to work maybe by have him smuggling or sell his body (not literally) or something. Instead we see them tell him to get the money and leave him to his own devices, regardless of how easy he is to find it felt weird to me. I mean it's not completely unbelievable hence why I added "maybe, I don't know" but in my imagination of organized crime it just doesn't make sense for them to not put him to work. Yes he found work as a devil hunter afterwards but he found that not them.

Didn't the mafioso tell Denji that he never liked him, on a fundamental basis, just before the other dude stabbed him in the back? I'd say that would explain sufficiently the reason why Denji was kept living as he did. Basically, the mafioso always hated Denji, and likely had wanted to kill him for a very long time, but as long as he needed to run his little gang, he did put Denji to work as an asset, but most likely he would have been quite happy if some demon had killed Denji. More importantly, he hated Denji for Denji being like he was: a faitful dog who never tried to fight back, never tried to run, was even willing to sell his own organs, accepted without a complaint the absurd reductions in the rewards. The mafioso hated such a man, yet because of it he knew Denji would never run away, so it didn't much matter if there was seemingly no leash. It allowed him to contact Denji whenever he wanted, but he also didn't need to see Denji too often, except for the occasional jobs.

[DarthEnderX]

Didn't the mafioso tell Denji that he never liked him, on a fundamental basis, just before the other dude stabbed him in the back?

Weren't both of those guys already zombies at that point?

[KrayZ33]

Weren't both of those guys already zombies at that point?

Difficult to know when the old guy turned Zombie.
They probably were, as they zombified as a group, not as individuals. (otherwise they would've realised that they is no benefit from making the deal with the devil)
I think the show could have shown it better though.

Or maybe the old Yakuza guy got really depressive in the end and was the last real Yakuza alive, already realising that they "made a deal with the devil" for a false promise and realized he couldn't escape from it.
After all, we don't really know if you can break a contract with a devil or if the devil can break it himself.
Good boy-devil doggo Pochita did sacrifice himself... and while I'm sure he did it happily, the deal he made with kid Denji was that he must help him out because "he doesn't want to die".

[fireheart]

There is a blank, but even with that blank in place, I still wouldn't describe his situation as "unbelievable" or "unrealistic". Not when there are real-world examples that can account for his situation.

Since we're in agreement about there being a blank there's no real reason to keep going, I've said my piece that I think Mfauli had a point and highlighted which parts of what's shown was hard for me to believe after considering his claims. We both gave real-world examples of how someone could end up outside the system but it's was still just conjecture and not necessarily correct. Simply put Mfauli isn't wrong for questioning how Denji ended up in such a situation since the show didn't adress it.

Didn't the mafioso tell Denji that he never liked him, on a fundamental basis, just before the other dude stabbed him in the back? I'd say that would explain sufficiently the reason why Denji was kept living as he did. Basically, the mafioso always hated Denji, and likely had wanted to kill him for a very long time, but as long as he needed to run his little gang, he did put Denji to work as an asset, but most likely he would have been quite happy if some demon had killed Denji. More importantly, he hated Denji for Denji being like he was: a faitful dog who never tried to fight back, never tried to run, was even willing to sell his own organs, accepted without a complaint the absurd reductions in the rewards. The mafioso hated such a man, yet because of it he knew Denji would never run away, so it didn't much matter if there was seemingly no leash. It allowed him to contact Denji whenever he wanted, but he also didn't need to see Denji too often, except for the occasional jobs.

Sure I buy this, but I'm not sure what you're trying to adress. That I don't think it's Denjis fault or that they didn't put him to work? If it's the latter then I'm not sure how much it of it applies to child Denji since it seems to more reflect his current state. You could say that even when he was a kid he knew he wouldn't run away but I still don't see why they didn't put him to work right away.

[Kraco]

You could say that even when he was a kid he knew he wouldn't run away but I still don't see why they didn't put him to work right away.

Didn't they? I actually find it hard to believe they wouldn't have. Who knows what kind of work it would have been, as we didn't see it, but considering how absolutely ruthless the mafia was, it's difficult to imagine they wouldn't have made Denji earn every single morsel needed to stay alive. He probably needed to hunt devils from very early on. If I had to guess, the mafia already disliked Denji's old man, and Denji not only inherited the debt but also the contempt.

[DarthEnderX]

Kiryu woulda beat the shit out of this mafia.

[Ryllharu]

This series is just really not clicking for me.

I get a sense of what they're doing with the story, this sorta feels like the Shoplifters of shonen anime. Rare focus on the downtrodden and abused social strata.

It's not really enjoyable watching Denji get dragged around from one self-serving group to another because he's too ignorant to notice that he's being used. I guess that is "the point," but if I want that kinda narrative, American media is loaded with those stories. Better told at this point in the story too.

You can immediately tell Makima's angle, she admitted it to the audience while it flew over Denji's head. And she clocked him as an easy mark by being even remotely kind to him. Manipulative Women People 101. Denji only sees it as a fair trade, continuing what he was already doing with a higher standard of living that he's had in forever, but it's very obviously not the case from the organization's perspective.

It's also annoying seeing everyone criticize Denji for not taking it seriously. He's done devil hunting as fulfilling the very bottom of Maslow's Needs for himself, and never really experienced any of the parts above it (aside from maybe affection for Pochita). They hunt devils for revenge or the safety of others. Denji has been doing it for survival and still barely making it. He's gotten skilled by necessity, they've gotten skilled by duty. Fire Force definitely handled the balance of duty and care a lot better.

I'll give this one more episode, but currently, I'm ready to drop this series. It's not living up to the disgusting amount of hype it got. It's fine, but it isn't holding my interest since I'm usually getting around to it days later.

[fireheart]

Didn't they? I actually find it hard to believe they wouldn't have. Who knows what kind of work it would have been, as we didn't see it, but considering how absolutely ruthless the mafia was, it's difficult to imagine they wouldn't have made Denji earn every single morsel needed to stay alive. He probably needed to hunt devils from very early on. If I had to guess, the mafia already disliked Denji's old man, and Denji not only inherited the debt but also the contempt.

They might have it's not shown what plans they had for child Denji. The only thing we got to see was them roll up to him tell him to pay off the monthly interest by tomorrow, that they don't care how he does it, just get it done or we chop you up and sell the pieces and then they leave. Hence why I feel they just left him to his own devices instead of putting him to work which didn't make sense to me.

Kiryu woulda beat the shit out of this mafia.

Yes he would... eventually after he's collected enough plushies, belted out at the karaoke and dropped kicked some devils.

[MFauli]

It's not living up to the disgusting amount of hype it got.

This really seems to be this anime biggest problem right now. The obscene hype it received prior to airing. Like, everyone was like "THIS IS THE MUST WATCH!!!1". Turns out it's okay, maybe will become great, but it's certainly not for everyone and it didn't exactly have an explosive start.

[Ryllharu]

This really seems to be this anime biggest problem right now. The obscene hype it received prior to airing. Like, everyone was like "THIS IS THE MUST WATCH!!!1". Turns out it's okay, maybe will become great, but it's certainly not for everyone and it didn't exactly have an explosive start.

Same issues that I have with Kaguya and Komi-san. I'm just on the other side of the fence, since arguably Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute and Spy x Family have the same problem.

[shinta|hikari]

I just don't pay attention to hype so I go in blind into what I watch, unless of course I have read the source material.

[Ryllharu]

I just don't pay attention to hype so I go in blind into what I watch, unless of course I have read the source material.

Difficult to not notice or even ignore how much this one was getting. The first teaser dropped and flurries of videos and posts were everywhere even remotely related to anime and manga.

[shinta|hikari]

Where do you guys see these trailers and stuff? I don't have any social media accounts, so I would've missed those if they were there.

[fireheart]

I also seen nothing and only heard about there being hype for this show through the fall anime thread. Honestly didn't even know what the show was about in the first place, for some reason I thought it was a guy becoming a chainsaw man after getting dumped or something and being all edgy fighting I don't know what. So the show is a lot different from what I expected though I'll still drop it since I'm not in the mood for this kind of show.

Also the only reason I even watched it is because several people mentioned it in the upcoming fall anime thread.

[shinta|hikari]

I like this a lot. I love downtrodden protagonists rising up from their low station, so these past 2 episodes have been a welcome surprise to me. I particularly liked the ball busting of the Sasuke-archtype.

[Kraco]

The only reason I suspected this might have a bit of hype is because I saw a significant amount of fanart before the anime adaptation was made, not only after. Other than that, I wouldn't really know since I don't particularly follow anime news anywhere. I feel like I'm most of the time quite late learning when a manga I like gets an anime announced. Especially nowadays when Mangadex doesn't have a comment section anymore. I learned about a few anime from there, from people who obviously follow the scene better than I do.

Nevertheless, I still don't know if this series is supposed to be "big" or just another a little bit popular title.

[KrayZ33]

I watch trailers on youtube if they show up and are in my feed, and Anichart - I use them to get a first glance in terms of animation, which is always a strong tell if a show is trash or not.
Video titles with moon-runes catch my eye and when they look good, I'm hyped/interested.
I don't know much about hype trains being formed around a show though, those are usually for netflix shows and show up on Youtube very often then. This didn't happen for Chainsaw man though.

I get my anime from this forum as well as ani-chart (to see what is airing in the first place), which means I'm not active in any anime community, other than this one of course.
If someone is however, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Chainsaw got hyped over there though

[MFauli]

Where do you guys see these trailers and stuff? I don't have any social media accounts, so I would've missed those if they were there.

It starts with TrashTaste on Youtube, then some other anime youtubers, then Tweets, then everyone somehow is talking about "omg, finally Chainsaw Man, the wait was so long, this is gonna be gud!!1", plus the usual toxicity a la "dude, you're insane if you don't watch this". And then the anime airs.

[Ryllharu]

Hell, even the Sad Cat Dance meme and its various redraws.

MAL, AniDB, ANN, youtube, you name it, the hype for this was pervasive.

edit:
Even reading unrelated manga on MangaPlus, it sneaks into the chapter comments.

[DarthEnderX]

Yeah, people have been raving about the manga for awhile now. So it makes sense the anime would be hyped.

This really seems to be this anime biggest problem right now. The obscene hype it received prior to airing. Like, everyone was like "THIS IS THE MUST WATCH!!!1". Turns out it's okay, maybe will become great, but it's certainly not for everyone and it didn't exactly have an explosive start.

I mean...we're on episode 2 here people.

I would have said the exact same thing about, say, Demon Slayer or Jujutsu Kaisen.